EXHAUSTION

STAGE 3

This stage is the result of prolonged or chronic stress. Struggling with stress for long periods can drain your physical, emotional, and mental resources to the point where your body no longer has strength to fight stress. You may give up or feel your situation is hopeless.

The physical effects of this stage also weaken your immune system and put you at risk for stress-related illnesses. In order to combat these symptoms of burnout, the following strategies will aid in long-term recovery and help you more quickly bounce back to your best self.

  • Take moments to slow your mind and body. Even if you’re not aware that you are stressed, you may still be suffering the effects of a previous stressful situation. Taking regular time out of your day or night to stop and have mental breaks from what you are doing and release any tension in your body will help your mind and body recover more quickly from both current and past stressors (Greenburg, 2016).
  • Reassess your values and goals. Whatever the cause, realigning your priorities can help you to maintain an achievable workload, and stay on track to achieve goals that are in line with your values.
  • Rest, recover and reward. Take a break after you have got through a stressful period – this puts book-ends to the situation. Secondly, take the time to recover and do what you need to do to get back to your best self. Thirdly, treat yourself. Give yourself an incentive for your hard work, so that if you are triggered again, you are already subconsciously thinking about the reward at the end.

ALARM

STAGE 1

The alarm reaction stage refers to the initial symptoms the body experiences when under stress. You may be familiar with the “fight-or-flight” response, which is a physiological response to stress. This natural reaction prepares you to either flee or protect yourself in dangerous situations. Your heart rate increases, your adrenal gland releases cortisol (a stress hormone), and you receive a boost of adrenaline, which increases energy. This fight-or-flight response occurs in the alarm reaction stage.

When we are triggered into a potentially stressful situation, our bodies create a chemical reaction, releasing adrenaline and cortisol hormones into our bodies. This is called the acute stress response, but is more widely known as the fight-or-flight response (Young Diggers, 2019). It is widely believed that the fight-or-flight response evolved as a natural necessity for our early human ancestors, and we still instinctively react to stressful situations the same way. As we experience the fight-or-flight response to stress, our heart rate increases and blood pressure elevates, boosting our energy supplies to cope with a perceived danger or threat. These common signs can help you identify if you may be in this stage:

  • Cooler skin: Our blood flow to the surface of our body decreases so that more blood can flow to the arms, legs, shoulders, brain, eyes, ears and nose – all of the body parts humans may have once needed when they entered the fight-or-flight mode (Young Diggers, 2019).
  • Sweating: Even though the reasons for experiencing the fight-or-flight reaction have evolved since the first humans, when stress would mean having to go through physically taxing situations (like being chased by a predatory animal), we still biologically react in the same way. Sweating is a natural occurrence that can happen when body heat rises, as our bodies try to cool us down (Young Diggers, 2019).
  • Dilated pupils: Another biological reaction passed down from our ancestors, when your pupils dilate, more light enters your field of vision and subsequently, you can see better (Young Diggers, 2019).
  • Dry mouth: As the blood flow is decreased from the digestive system, saliva production is also decreased. This is our body’s way of refocusing on situation survival rather than digesting a past meal (Young Diggers, 2019).
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ALARM

STAGE 1

RESISTANCE

STAGE 2

Whatever your initial response to stress may be (sweating, dry mouth etc.), your body is more likely to have a greater capacity to cope with the situation that is causing a stress reaction once you move into the resistance stage. This stage indicates that your body is trying to return to its natural state by releasing anti-inflammatory hormones to calm and ease the negative effects of stress. However, if the stress continues and you do not take the time to then recover, you may find yourself entering the last two stages of stress, adaptation and burnout, quicker (Lumen, 2019). Some helpful strategies to move through the resistance stage are:

  • Notice the causes. Students are very susceptible to entering the resistance stage of stress; constant studying, writing assignments, sleep-deprivation and poor diet are all situations where our bodies try to resist stress and keep pressing on. If you feel as though you are constantly fighting these potential triggers, you may need to take a moment to practice self-care.
  • Take action. While your body is taking action to calm yourself, the stressor is still there. You have a greater capacity to take effective action now, so ensuring you are being proactive in combatting the stress trigger will help you move through to the recovery stage more quickly.
  • Plan for the future. If you find yourself in this stage of stress often, you can plan for it in advance so you find yourself spending less time in this stage in future.
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RESISTANCE

STAGE 2

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EXHAUSTION

STAGE 3

ALARM

STAGE 1

ALARM

STAGE 1

The alarm reaction stage refers to the initial symptoms the body experiences when under stress. You may be familiar with the “fight-or-flight” response, which is a physiological response to stress. This natural reaction prepares you to either flee or protect yourself in dangerous situations. Your heart rate increases, your adrenal gland releases cortisol (a stress hormone), and you receive a boost of adrenaline, which increases energy. This fight-or-flight response occurs in the alarm reaction stage.

When we are triggered into a potentially stressful situation, our bodies create a chemical reaction, releasing adrenaline and cortisol hormones into our bodies. This is called the acute stress response, but is more widely known as the fight-or-flight response (Young Diggers, 2019). It is widely believed that the fight-or-flight response evolved as a natural necessity for our early human ancestors, and we still instinctively react to stressful situations the same way. As we experience the fight-or-flight response to stress, our heart rate increases and blood pressure elevates, boosting our energy supplies to cope with a perceived danger or threat. These common signs can help you identify if you may be in this stage:

  • Cooler skin: Our blood flow to the surface of our body decreases so that more blood can flow to the arms, legs, shoulders, brain, eyes, ears and nose – all of the body parts humans may have once needed when they entered the fight-or-flight mode (Young Diggers, 2019).
  • Sweating: Even though the reasons for experiencing the fight-or-flight reaction have evolved since the first humans, when stress would mean having to go through physically taxing situations (like being chased by a predatory animal), we still biologically react in the same way. Sweating is a natural occurrence that can happen when body heat rises, as our bodies try to cool us down (Young Diggers, 2019).
  • Dilated pupils: Another biological reaction passed down from our ancestors, when your pupils dilate, more light enters your field of vision and subsequently, you can see better (Young Diggers, 2019).
  • Dry mouth: As the blood flow is decreased from the digestive system, saliva production is also decreased. This is our body’s way of refocusing on situation survival rather than digesting a past meal (Young Diggers, 2019).

RESISTANCE

STAGE 2

RESISTANCE

STAGE 2

Whatever your initial response to stress may be (sweating, dry mouth etc.), your body is more likely to have a greater capacity to cope with the situation that is causing a stress reaction once you move into the resistance stage. This stage indicates that your body is trying to return to its natural state by releasing anti-inflammatory hormones to calm and ease the negative effects of stress. However, if the stress continues and you do not take the time to then recover, you may find yourself entering the last two stages of stress, adaptation and burnout, quicker (Lumen, 2019). Some helpful strategies to move through the resistance stage are:

  • Notice the causes. Students are very susceptible to entering the resistance stage of stress; constant studying, writing assignments, sleep-deprivation and poor diet are all situations where our bodies try to resist stress and keep pressing on. If you feel as though you are constantly fighting these potential triggers, you may need to take a moment to practice self-care.
  • Take action. While your body is taking action to calm yourself, the stressor is still there. You have a greater capacity to take effective action now, so ensuring you are being proactive in combatting the stress trigger will help you move through to the recovery stage more quickly.
  • Plan for the future. If you find yourself in this stage of stress often, you can plan for it in advance so you find yourself spending less time in this stage in future.

EXHAUSTION

STAGE 3

EXHAUSTION

STAGE 3

This stage is the result of prolonged or chronic stress. Struggling with stress for long periods can drain your physical, emotional, and mental resources to the point where your body no longer has strength to fight stress. You may give up or feel your situation is hopeless.

The physical effects of this stage also weaken your immune system and put you at risk for stress-related illnesses. In order to combat these symptoms of burnout, the following strategies will aid in long-term recovery and help you more quickly bounce back to your best self.

  • Take moments to slow your mind and body. Even if you’re not aware that you are stressed, you may still be suffering the effects of a previous stressful situation. Taking regular time out of your day or night to stop and have mental breaks from what you are doing and release any tension in your body will help your mind and body recover more quickly from both current and past stressors (Greenburg, 2016).
  • Reassess your values and goals. Whatever the cause, realigning your priorities can help you to maintain an achievable workload, and stay on track to achieve goals that are in line with your values.
  • Rest, recover and reward. Take a break after you have got through a stressful period – this puts book-ends to the situation. Secondly, take the time to recover and do what you need to do to get back to your best self. Thirdly, treat yourself. Give yourself an incentive for your hard work, so that if you are triggered again, you are already subconsciously thinking about the reward at the end.